February 20, 2009
UK High Court has rejected challenges by Christians to halt research involving human-animal hybrid embryos.
The experiments with inter-species embryos, which involve inserting a human cell nucleus into an empty egg, are ultimately intended to create powerful laboratory models for investigating conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson's and motor neurone disease.
Professor Stephen Minger, of King's, who holds one of the licences, welcomed the ruling. He said: “It is gratifying that Mrs Justice Dobbs recognised that the science behind the creation of hybrid embryos was always about creating unique cloned human cell lines that could accelerate the development of therapies for a number of important neurodegenerative conditions.
Ethical Issues:
- creating hybrid embryos with part human and part animal DNA for research into diseases
- involves the destruction of life (the majority of the DNA is atill human)
